Category Archives: Professor Horner’s Bible Reading System

A couple of years ago I discovered Professor Horner’s Bible Reading System. It literally changed my life. Ok, to be specific, the Lord changed my life through the intense reading of His Word via Professor Horner’s system. Anyway, in the summer of 2010 I had the privilege of interviewing him. Previously, I published that interview in 3 installments. Today, in revisiting that interview, I have combined all three parts so that one can read the whole interview in one place. – Pastor Brett

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Grant Horner teaching a class at The Master’s College

August 31, 2010

Grant Horner is Associate Professor of English at The Master’s College in Santa Clarita, California. A husband and the father of three, Horner is best known to the world for developing a Bible reading plan that is spreading like wildfire. What is the plan? Read 10 chapters of the Bible per day from 10 different sections of Scripture. Professor Horner was gracious enough to sit down and answer 25 questions about his Bible reading system and himself.

Pastor Brett:. I see you studied at both UNC-Chapel Hill and Duke. I didn’t know they would allow that. So, Tar Heels or Blue Devils?

Prof. Horner: I never paid attention to college sports. I taught at University of Alabama for 6 months before I realized that all the noise coming from the big round building on campus was crazed fans screaming ROLL TIDE. When I lived in North Carolina, I was doing PhD work at both UNC and Duke, the great archrivals. I figured out pretty quickly that it would be fun to put bumper stickers for BOTH schools on my car, as I went back and forth between the two campuses and parked. Yep — it was very humorous. Rednecks pulled up next to me at stoplights and called out “boy, you got yersef some kind problem or somthin’???” You could sometimes hear a gun cocking. Lucky I wasn’t shot.

Pastor Brett: You have a book that was recently released. Tell us a little bit about that venture.

Professor Horner: It was released in late June from Crossway and is called Meaning at the Movies: Becoming a Discerning Viewer. It is about theology and movies, but with a highly unusual approach. I’ve developed a new biblical theology of culture, and the book is based around these ideas. Over years of thinking about scripture and culture I’ve put together what is being called a groundbreaking approach to the issue, and it really opens up the world of what I call biblical-critical cultural discernment. It is written for a general readership, and I’m hoping Christians as well as nonbelievers will give it a look, and see what a powerful biblical approach to culture does for the mind, and for the Christian living in a pagan culture. The book has gotten excellent reviews and has been on the Amazon bestseller list since it came out. It is definitely stirring the pot for Christian thought about culture — what we do with it, how it works, and most importantly, where it comes from.

Pastor Brett: Let’s talk about your Bible-reading plan. How did you develop this system?

Professor Horner: As a brand new Christian the Bible was entirely new to me and very intimidating. I could not get a handle on it as quickly as I wanted to for the first few months. I was bewildered. I found a number of programs, but none of them seemed to work for me. There was one in a Chick Tract that caught my eye that had you reading a lot of books at once, and so I adapted it and built in all the other components as it now stands. I shared it with a few people over the years, but never thought about publicizing it. The original “plan” is still written in blue ink in my same Bible, from 1983!

This is the third and final installment of my interview with Professor Grant Horner (Prof. Horner’s Bible Reading System). Tuesday and Wednesday featured parts One and Two.

Pastor Brett: You recommend using one Bible and sticking with it, and you mention the concern you had over Pastor John MacArthur asking to see your tattered Bible during your interview process. So what kind of Bible have you used all these years (version, binding, etc.)? Has it been rebound?

Professor Horner: I have a 1967 imprint Scofield Bible, given to me in new condition in 1983 by my father-in-law. It was rebound in 2002; by then the covers were all gone, the spine missing, and all the front matter up to Genesis 1 and the concordance past ‘sin’ — all gone. The rebind is still functioning but pretty worn! Maybe another two years or so. I am attaching a photo of my Bible in the dry brook at Elah …. surrounded by smooth stones, and open to the relevant passage. I also managed to find an exact printing of my same Scofield a few years ago, and I have kept that one clean, and shifted my reading to it (I preach from the old one; it is sentimental.)

Professor Horner’s Scofield Bible (KJV) in the dry brook of Elah, opened to the appropriate passage. And as Prof. Horner points out on his Facebook group page, “…not a giant in sight.”

Pastor Brett: If a new Christian were to ask you for the ideal Bible for life…how would you answer?

Here is part 2 of my interview with Grant Horner, developer of Prof. Horner’s Bible Reading System. For part 1, click HERE.

Pastor Brett: Can you give a summary of your routine in terms of your daily devotional life?

Professor Horner: I am not a routine guy. The funny thing here is my use of the word “system” — I hate systems! But there was no other word.

I may have a week where I do not actually physically read the text hardly at all. Then in a whole day I may read through Job and Romans, or all four Gospels. Life is unpredictably rhythmic, and that’s ok. But — and this is key — the ‘non-reading’ days have the after-effects of all the imprinting. Scripture is constantly before me and informing my thoughts. I am in front of people all the time, teaching and speaking. I also do a lot of counseling. I rarely have to actually open the Bible — it is just accessible to my mind and I refer to it directly. Scripture itself talks about having the Word in your heart, your mind, almost physically in and on your body, like a necklace. We are to have the mind of Christ — that is, we must think like the Word.

Pastor Brett: Are there any dramatic testimonies that have come in about people using this plan?

Grant Horner is Associate Professor of English at The Master’s College in Santa Clarita, California. A husband and the father of three, Horner is best known to the world for developing a Bible reading plan that is spreading like wildfire. What is the plan? Read 10 chapters of the Bible per day from 10 different sections of Scripture. Professor Horner was gracious enough to sit down and answer 25 questions about his Bible reading system and himself.

Pastor Brett:. I see you studied at both UNC-Chapel Hill and Duke. I didn’t know they would allow that. So, Tar Heels or Blue Devils?

Prof. Horner: I never paid attention to college sports. I taught at University of Alabama for 6 months before I realized that all the noise coming from the big round building on campus was crazed fans screaming ROLL TIDE. When I lived in North Carolina, I was doing PhD work at both UNC and Duke, the great archrivals. I figured out pretty quickly that it would be fun to put bumper stickers for BOTH schools on my car, as I went back and forth between the two campuses and parked. Yep — it was very humorous. Rednecks pulled up next to me at stoplights and called out “boy, you got yersef some kind problem or somthin’???” You could sometimes hear a gun cocking. Lucky I wasn’t shot.

Pastor Brett: You have a book that was recently released. Tell us a little bit about that venture.

If you are a regular attender of Harvest Bible Chapel of Jacksonville or have followed this blog for long, then you know that I am a HUGE fan of Professor Grant Horner’s Bible reading plan. The impact this plan has had on my spiritual life is immeasurable. Not many of you, however, may know that I actually have adjusted it just a little bit. I made some switches among the Old Testament lists (which resulted in 5 OT lists in comparison with his 6) in order to create a separate New Testament list for Romans, Galatians, and Ephesians.

I did this because I especially want to master Romans. Reading it monthly will help me accomplish that goal. I threw Galatians and Ephesians in with Romans in order to bring the chapter count to 28, making this list the same length as the book of Acts. So, each month I read entirely through Proverbs, Acts, Romans, Galatians, and Ephesians. The price of this adjustment is that I now have a 311 day list in the Old Testament, but that exchange is worth it for me. Here are my lists:

It’s been almost a year since I first heard about Professor Horner’s Bible reading system and began telling others about it. I just updated my original post about the plan.

I am also hoping to post a few more interviews with those who have been impacted by Professor Horner’s system. If you are using Professor Horner’s plan and have been greatly impacted by it, I’d love to hear your story.

As more and more people at our church are taking up Prof. Horner’s Bible Reading Plan, I have decided to interview more people who are using the plan. I hope this will encourage those of us who are on the plan, as well as challenge everyone to spend more time reading God’s Word.

While I will continue to interview my church members in the future, I also want to develop new friendships with people around the world through Facebook and hear how God is working in their lives through His Word.